Bald Eagle back to roost at his favourite manor

When Jim Smith left Oxford United for Queens Park Rangers in June 1985, he promised himself he would return. Oxford was in his blood. He kept his house nearby, kept his love of the club. Twenty-one years on, Smith holds the key of the door to the manager's office again.

Walking yesterday around the Kassam Stadium, which everyone wants to rename the New Manor Ground in honour of the arena where Smith once worked, Oxford's staff were delighted to catch sight of the Bald Eagle and hear again that familiar jolly-bulldog laugh. As well as the ebullient personality, they all remember the terrific mid-Eighties side that Smith built.

"It was one of the greatest periods of my career, following the worst part when I got the sack at Birmingham, and I was absolutely shattered," recalled Smith, sitting beneath a large sign saying RESPECT. "But I was at work at Oxford in a fortnight with Robert Maxwell. First game of the season, we beat Gillingham away 3-0, and I went to Maxwell's house, because I wanted Micky Vintner from Wrexham.

"I knocked on the door, and I had a very large cigar in my mouth. Maxwell opened the door, which he often did, even though he had all these Filipinos. 'Come in, Jim. Put that rubbish out.' I threw the cigar out. Oh, no, I thought, it's a non-smoking house. Maxwell poured me a drink and then brought me the biggest Havana you've seen. 'You smoke that in my house.' I liked him.

"We won two championships but my biggest regret ever is that I never managed in the old First Division, and that was through falling out with Maxwell. When somebody got more publicity than him, he didn't like it and pushed them away, and I was getting all the publicity."

In May 1985, Smith went to London to discuss his contract with Oxford's owner. "Maxwell had just bought the Mirror, and had invited all these people from small sports like cycling, roller-skating, and ice-hockey in for Champagne, saying we were going to promote all these sports in the Mirror. He got a big screen and we were all going to watch Liverpool-Juventus in the European Cup final.

"He took me in another room to talk. I wanted £50,000 a year, and he was offering £45,000. Suddenly, his assistant came in and said: 'Nightmare.' Because of what was happening at Heysel. That obviously stopped the conversation. I never got talking to Maxwell for a month after that, and I got tapped up by QPR. 'If you want to go, you go,' Maxwell said.

"Maybe I shouldn't have jumped. Maybe I should have talked to Maxwell. If I had stayed at Oxford, won the Milk Cup, which they did the next year I would have won two championships and a Milk Cup in three years, and I would have been manager of Arsenal or Manchester United."

Pride quickly replaces regret. "John Aldridge was probably my best signing, because he came from Newport for £70,000, was sold for nearly £1 million to Liverpool and would be around £15 million at today's prices. He was a great goalscorer. But the signing that gave me most pleasure was Trevor Hebberd from Southampton.

"Trevor was an unsung hero, a machine who could do anything, play right-back, centre-back, midfield. If he hadn't got injured against Everton when poor old Howard Kendall was on the rocks, we would have beaten Everton and Howard would have gone out of work. Trevor didn't make the replay.

"I brought Colin Todd to Oxford. He was at Nottingham Forest, playing in the reserves one day with Cloughie watching. 'Young man, don't you play offside again or else I will have you off.' Colin did it again. Knowing Colin, he might have done it deliberately. 'Get off,' said Cloughie. I knew then I could get Colin on a free. I spoke to Brian. 'Are you going to look after him, get him on the pitch, show him to all the fans?' Brian asked. Yeah, yeah. Colin came, and we got promoted.

"I've worked with some great players in my career like Trevor Francis and Frank Worthington. Stefano Eranio, technically, was one of the best players I ever worked with. He lifted Derby skill-wise. He could stop the ball dead on his toe. At the time I felt we needed a big, ugly centre-half to help us so I bought Spencer Prior. One game, at half-time, Eranio went to Spencer. 'Spencer, why? Why always put ball in the stand? No players in the stand!

"Players now don't have the hunger of before. They take the money. Yesterday I tried to sign a guy from Portsmouth, Franck Songo'o, a young lad who can't get near the first team and has been playing in the reserves, at Havant & Waterlooville. He said: I'm not going to Oxford.' They won't drop down a level, particularly the foreigners."

Now 65, Smith worries about the foreign influence on British football. "When you have Premiership reserve and youth teams with 90 per cent foreign players, that is wrong," added Smith, before turning his attention to club ownership. "With most clubs, it would be handy if a big, rich Russian comes in and spends £20 billion to get you top, but most clubs at this level want local men running the local club. Fans here want Oxford in local hands. Nick Merry, the new owner, is a Woodstock boy and I live in Woodstock.

"The British aspect could disappear if the trend we are trying to do here isn't taken on board. Not that we have come to be saviours of Britain, we have to rescue our local club. But look at Hearts. What are the owners in there for? Egotism? Not for football reasons."

Smith's passion for football has been rekindled by almost a year out since his controversial departure from Southampton. "When I was at our house in Spain, on the golf course, and the sun was shining, I didn't give a damn about the football! I wasn't hurting as much as I thought I would. That was a lot to do with how it all ended, with the crap at Portsmouth and Southampton. Do I need all that?

"Everybody has a right not to renew your contract. At Portsmouth they wanted to force Harry Redknapp and me out for some unknown reason and get the foreign coaching thing in. At Southampton they wanted to bring Sir Clive Woodward in and change things. That's not a problem if they sit down and tell you. But it was: 'We are going down, we have to cut the money' and then bringing in people on £750,000 a year! It's about being straight. I'm a bit naive saying that - that's the nature of football."

So Smith swapped the St Mary's dug-out for the Spanish bunkers. "But I did miss football, especially Saturday. I was getting on my wife's nerves. In a daft kind of way, being out that length of time, I feel so relaxed and up for it. When I was going from one job to another, I got a headache - get me out of here! But Nick's offer hooked me because it was Oxford. Alex Ferguson rang and said: 'Well done.' I certainly knew what Bobby Robson would say: 'Get in there!' " Smith is back where he belongs.